MagnaGuard - TVC - Basic (VC18)

Name: MagnaGuardCollection: The Vintage CollectionNumber: VC18Source: Revenge Of The SithAvailability: September 2010License: Hasbro

Celebrate the legendary Star Wars saga that changed the universe forever! This collection brings to life the incredible story of good versus evil that captured our imagination and took us to a galaxy far, far away. Iconic Star Wars heroes and villains are captured with incredible detail and premium features to commemorate each epic tale in the Star Wars saga. May the Force be with you!

Hasbro loves us, this we know. For the MagnaGuard tells us so. Speechless are we to express what the MagnaGuard does for us. The MagnaGuard is stealing the show as far as The Vintage Collection is concerned and is one of the best figure already in first two waves of figures. After checking this marvelous figure over quite thoroughly, it makes total sense why we feel the way we do. We got an inkling very recently of what Hasbro was capable of and had in mind for their droids the likes of their brilliant action figures in The Clone Wars line (IG-86 Assasin Droid, Ziro's Assassin Droid, Commando Droid and MagnaGuard all come to mind). With exquisite detail and incredible articulation, these droids brought a whole new level and set a new standard of what we would expect for the realistic styled action figures. Hasbro brought this "new level and standard" with full force to The Vintage Collection's MagnaGuard with baffling results. This is one incredible action figure. They essentially followed the same formula for it that they did for the 2009 TCW MagnaGuard (CW49) right up to the soft-goods cape (in fact, both figure have nearly identical capes). They then went the extra mile further to include things that we really didn't expect but have made the action figure that much better. It is wondrously sculpted, incredibly articulated and beautifully painted and it is absolutely one of the best action figures we have received period. MagnaGuard is super-articulated with 14 points of movement. That's definitely expected at this point, isn't it? Well, the points of articulation have been meticulously incorporated into the figure as they would be if this droid was real. Hasbro even included ankle joints for this release and all of them work together flawlessly to allow for some dramatic poses. Modeled after the white MagnaGuard, Hasbro decorated the figure beautifully and covered it in a dirty wash that looks absolutely stunning. As a bonus, MagnaGuard has ball-jointed hips and its hands have been flawlessly designed to hold the electrostaff in a variety of ways.

The TVC version of the MagnaGuard droid also has a few other bells and whistles. For example, it has a soft rubber cap (as well as the cape) that goes over its head and it can be removed to give you other display options. We love this versatility, but we're not sure how necessary it was for Hasbro to include this when tooling costs have been an issue the last few years. That doesn't mean we're not thrilled to have this. You can also remove the droid's chest plate which we assume has been crafted this way for extra play value, but again, we're not sure how important it was for Hasbro to include this. No aesthetic of the figure was sacrificed and it all looks great. The droid remains tall and lean and has a tiny pea head loaded with details. And the contrast of colors used couldn't look better. A brand new electrostaff was sculpted for this figure and comes apart in three pieces. The two ends (with purple EMP detail) come off to expose the inner workings of the baton's internal edges. The removable ends are clear, albeit slightly opaque, but allow the collector to see the inner details and workings through them. There is a ton of detail to take in with every part of this figures and its accessories. You would have to be a really boring person to not enjoy this figure thoroughly. The MagnaGuard also comes with a droid blaster and it looks awesome when we pose the droid as "naked" as possible in our opinion. It gives it a very eerie presence. The MagnaGuard can really be manipulated into any configuration you pretty much want thanks to his expert design. We don't think Hasbro has any reason to revisit this figure. It is absolutely the best version to date. Gone are the terrible action features and the rather boring paint jobs. This is perfection and it just blows us away how Hasbro is able to design action figures of this incredible quality. We are really hoping that this droid doesn't get overlooked because that would truly be a crime.

Designed by Holowan Mechanicals, there are four varieties of MagnaGuards; black, alabaster, blue and gray. We're not entirely sure exactly how many different color MagnaGuards appear in Revenge Of The Sith, but we do know of at least two; the alabaster and the blue types. We hope that Hasbro will at least revisit this figure to make the blue version. That would make us very happy collectors. We have the old Revenge Of The Sith figures, but why waste a great sculpt like this new figure and not make more versions of it? Hey, it's an easy repaint, right? The Vintage Collection is the alabaster flavor, also known as model IG-102. The off-white body is completed by a cape in a similar color of the droid with brown karabba-blood war paint markings. That reminds us. The soft-goods cape this droid comes with is spectacularly sewn and has tatters and holes and makes it looks extremely genuine. These types of MagnaGuards can be seen at multiple times throughout Episode III, so we have a screen-accurate version in action figure form. The phrik alloy that their electrostaffs are made of can block a lightsaber's blade, so other methods must be employed to defeat these imposing foes. We normally don't like to comment or photograph packaging in our Research Droids Reviews, but we are making an exception in The Vintage Collection since packaging is really part of the experience for us. While we won't claim to understand Hasbro's logic for including neo-classic packaged figures on the card back for reference photos, Hasbro managed to select the incorrect figure as their "original MagnaGuard card". They incorrectly referenced 2005's ROTS Grievous's Bodyguard (III 8) instead of 2005's ROTS Grievous' Bodyguard (III 60) which is the correct alabaster colored MagnaGuard from the original Revenge Of The Sith line. If Hasbro is going to take this approach, we would ask that they get their history correct. It certainly could be worse. Hasbro could have made a mistake on the figure instead. But they didn't and have essentially made a perfect droid for collectors. And we now have a definitive version of the MagnaGuard!